Клэр Донелли - Catch As Cat Can

Sunny was just getting through the morning’s emails when she heard the rattle of the gate going up next door.

Better go play rent collector, she thought, putting her cup down. If Ollie calls, I’ll be able to tell him I did my duty for the day.

It was just a couple of yards between doors, and Sunny was wearing a heavy sweater, but she still felt the cold as she darted into the fish shop’s entrance. Neil Garret stood in front of the counter, wheeling around as Sunny came in. “We’re not really open—” he began.

Sunny rubbed her arms. “It’s almost as cold in here as it is outside,” she said. “Are you turning off the heat?”

Her question seemed to shake Neil out of a daze. “No,” he replied, heading around the counter. Sunny followed him as he strode to the rear of the store—and an open back door. “Oh, no.” Neil ran to the cash register, hitting buttons to open the drawer. Sunny got out her cell phone and hit 911. “I’m at Kittery Harbor Fish,” she said, giving the address. “There’s been a break-in.”

As she spoke, she followed Neil to the door of the walk-in freezer, nearly crashing into him as he suddenly stopped. Then Sunny saw why—the sprawled form on the floor in a puddle of frozen blood.

“And a body,” she added.

5

Ben Semple, oneof Kittery Harbor’s town constables, was the first law-enforcement type to arrive on the scene. When he saw Sunny, he let out a long, “Aaaahhhh, man. I was hoping I hadn’t heard the squawk on the radio right—or that this was one of those swatting things.” He was a friend of Will’s, and knew from experience that if Sunny was involved, there had to be a dead body around somewhere.

Sunny pointed toward the freezer, Ben jumped inside and a moment later came out, keeping his back to the door. Ben was more at home writing traffic tickets for the bargain hunters racing through outlet-land, but he knew how to secure a crime scene. He got on his radio, and the street and store began to fill with people from the sheriff’s department. Captain Ingersoll, the number-two man in the department, arrived about two minutes after Will came in, accompanied by Val Overton.

Sunny didn’t have any chance to ask about that. Ingersoll immediately buttonholed her. From the look on his face, you’d think this place stinks to high heaven, Sunny thought. “You found the body?” he asked, his voice dropping the temperature in the chilly store a few more degrees.

And it’s great to see you, too, that flippant voice in the back of Sunny’s head answered. Aloud she said, “We found the body,” gesturing to Neil Garret.

That didn’t make the captain look any happier. He turned to Will. “Why don’t you take Mr. Garret here and get a statement. I’ll send Ms. Coolidge to the station with Mullen. I called the state police barracks. Their crime-scene team is on the way.”

Typical cop procedure, Sunny thought. Splitting up the witnesses so they can’t concoct a story together. Not so typical was the fact that Val Overton accompanied Will and Neil.

Maybe they’re using the same car. She didn’t get a chance to check. Ingersoll put her in the custody of a sheriff’s deputy she didn’t know. He looked at her as if he were afraid she was going to pull an Uzi from under her sweater and try to shoot her way to freedom. Mullen almost refused to let her into the MAX office to get her coat—kind of unfair, considering the way he was bundled up in a green sheriff’s parka. But Ben Semple intervened, accompanying them as Sunny got her coat, turned off the coffeemaker and the computer, and locked the office door.

Well here goes a day shot to hell, Sunny thought as they headed to Mullen’s car. She knew how long it could take getting out of police clutches. Good thing there’s nothing urgent going on, or Ollie would have a fit.

Thinking of Ollie reminded her of the whole rent question, which had gotten sidetracked when they’d found the body in the freezer. It won’t be easy to scratch up the money for Ollie if the place is closed, she thought. Even though the outer door stood open, it was pretty clear no business would be transacted today.

Deputy Mullen offered no conversation during the trip to the sheriff’s office in the county seat. As soon as Sunny arrived, she was conducted to an interrogation room and left to marinate. Well, Sunny thought, I expect they’ll be busy with the dead guy. And let’s face it, considering my popularity with Ingersoll, he’ll leave me at the end of his list .

So she was surprised when the door opened and the sheriff herself walked in. As the widow of the former sheriff, Lenore Nesbit had ridden a wave of public sympathy after her husband’s death in the line of duty, trouncing Will in the primary and winning in the general election for the office. What she lacked in police skill she more than made up for with a shrewd sense of politics. In the light of her own painful experience, Lenore had promoted Will, admitting that the county needed more investigative capacity to deal with new kinds of crime. She relied on Ingersoll for administrative matters.

Sunny smiled at the sheriff, but couldn’t help thinking, Either they’re really pressed for personnel, or they don’t think I have much to offer if Lenore’s going to question me.

“How are you feeling?” Lenore Nesbit asked.

“Not too bad,” Sunny replied. “Lucky, I guess, because I only got a quick look at the body—just enough to be sure he was dead.”

Lenore shuddered. “I saw the crime-scene photos on the computer. Don’t think I’ll have anything with tomato sauce for a while.” She paused for a second. “Why don’t you take me through what happened?”

“Traffic was bad, so I got to work a little late.” Sunny began the story, but Lenore soon interrupted. “You say you got in late, but the fish shop was still closed.”

Sunny shrugged. “Maybe the traffic made Neil late, too.”

“You’re sure the place was closed?”

“The gate was down. I could see that from across the street.” Sunny explained that Ollie had given her the responsibility of reminding Neil about the rent. “So, when I heard the gate go up—”

“When exactly was that?”

“A few minutes after I got in,” Sunny replied. “I’d gotten a cup of coffee and just started the day’s routine. Anyway, I figured I’d get over there and take care of Ollie’s errand. I found Neil in front of the display case and asked him why it was so cold.” She went on to describe how they’d found the back door open.

“How was Mr. Garret acting?” Lenore asked.

“Spooked,” Sunny said. “I guess he knew something was wrong the moment he stepped in. He tried to tell me the store wasn’t open yet. Then, when we found the door open, he checked the cash register and then the freezer. That’s when we saw the body. I was already on the phone to report the break-in, and added that fact. Then we waited until Ben Semple arrived.”

“Neither of you went into the freezer?”

“I didn’t see the need, once I saw all that blood. It was like a sheet of red ice on the floor.” Sunny took a moment to call up her memory of the grisly sight. “Whoever it was must have been there for a while. The store was cold enough that you could see your breath in the air, and I wasn’t seeing any around the guy down there.” She stopped for a moment, struck by something else in her mental picture. “The dead man wasn’t dressed for Maine weather,” she said. “He was wearing some kind of light-colored raincoat, so he must have been half-frozen before he wound up in the freezer.”

That sparked another memory. “I didn’t get to see the guy’s face. Did he have a beard?”